There’s an “A Team” at Coors Field for every Rockies home game, and it’s not the players listed on the lineup card manager Walt Weiss gives to the umpire.
The “A Team” consists of 17 members of the event services staff who work behind the scenes to make sure everything operates smoothly off the field.
Unlike Weiss, Bill Mast directs his team from his chair in the press box. Mast calls his group the “A Team” to give it status.
Leona Bender is a member of Mast’s team. She is 85, 5-foot-1 and ready to tackle any assignment Mast has in mind. She is known among team members as “a character.”
“I’m going to live to be 120 and work until I’m 102,” Bender says to introduce herself and explain her work ethic. If there are disbelievers, they stay quiet.
Bender’s main assignment is operating the elevators at the home plate end of the field. She shuttles media, players, players’ families and spectators to stops from the field level, to press level, to spectator level.
“We go through training before every season,” Bender said. “We’re there to help make Coors Field a nice place for the fans.”
Some fans who attend other sports events might wonder whether Bender is a twin. They may think they have seen her operating elevators during sports events at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, the Pepsi Center and Boulder’s Folsom Field. It’s her.
But the Rockies and baseball are Bender’s priorities.
“The Rockies and baseball are my first love,” Bender said. “I saw my first baseball game in Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis when we lived there.”
Bender has missed only one Rockies home game this season and plans to be at the final ones today and Sunday.
Todd Helton was a favorite of hers. Star third baseman Nolan Arenado is a favorite now. She was glad to see Carlos Gonzalez regain his form after a slow start and Justin Morneau’s return to action from the disabled list. She misses Clint Barmes and his family, and Matt Holliday.
Bender may be the oldest member of Mast’s “A Team,” but she prefers to be just a member of the team. Marilyn Pearson, also with the team, is 82. Pearson has been at Coors Field for 18 years.
“I don’t want any special treatment because of my age,” Bender said.
Bender utilizes her time at Coors Field. During the 20 minutes of each hour she has off, she talks baseball with anyone available or she works on a knitting project she has to finish before Christmas.
She joined the “A Team” in 2007 after her husband, Frank Bender, died. He had been on the “A Team” too.
“We all get along,” Bender said of her teammates. “The Rockies are my team, win or lose. I love my job. What else am I going to do? It keeps me young.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or
Bender bio
Born: Feb. 24, 1928, in Denver
High school: Lakewood
Family: Husband Frank (deceased); sons Samuel (deceased), Tony and David; daughter Linda Marie
Hobbies: Crochet, knitting
Looking ahead: Rockies winning a World Series
